Heaven's Devils: the famed First Squad of the Guild Wars

The Heaven's Devils were the most famous squad within the Confederate Special Tactics and Mission Platoon, a unit raised during the Guild Wars between the Terran Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine. Designated First Squad, the unit earned its nickname from the press and carried it into legend, counting Tychus Findlay and Jim Raynor among its core members before both men deserted to become outlaws.

Formation at Turaxis II#

The squad came together during the Guild Wars at the Battle of Turaxis II. Its members were drawn from elements of the 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion who had survived the Breakout at Firebase Zulu and were brought to Fort Howe. There they weathered a Kel-Morian attack, only to discover Confederate forces using the assault as cover to loot the base and steal a truck of supplies. Pushed by Sergeant Tychus Findlay, the squad stole one of the trucks for themselves and returned the other.

The theft caught the attention of Colonel Javier Vanderspool, who suspected the squad but could not prove its involvement. He gathered the men into the First Squad and inserted his own spy, the medic Lisa "Doc" Cassidy, so he could keep watch over them. The squad tested the newest CMC-230 XE and CMC-230 XF armor developed by the technician Hiram Feek, and was placed under Lieutenant Marcus Quigby until an incident in which Cassidy spiked his drink with laxatives humiliated him during an armor test and saw him dismissed from command.

KIC-36 and the naming#

The squad's armor trials were preparation for an attack on KIC-36, a Kel-Morian internment camp. They sent Private Jim Raynor into the camp to prepare the prisoners, but he was discovered, captured, and interrogated. The squad then assaulted the camp, killed its defenders, and rallied the prisoners, only to find their evacuation cut off by Kel-Morian Hellhound attacks. They loaded the prisoners of war into armored personnel carriers and fought through squads of rippers to reach safety, bringing the captives back to Confederate lines through brutal fighting.

At the celebration afterward, pilot Clair Hobarth gave First Squad the nickname "Heaven's Devils," and the core group got tattoos to mark it. The name was the squad's own from that night forward.

Polk's Pride and Vanderspool's betrayal#

The Devils later took part in the Third Battle of Polk's Pride, crossing into Kel-Morian territory and flanking the enemy position along the river. They were supported by legions of resocialized marines sent into enemy fire wave after wave. First Squad broke through the Kel-Morian armor but lost their commander, Lieutenant Samantha Sanchez, in the fighting. The Devils won the day, and UNN reporter Max Speer took a famous photograph of the squad in the aftermath of their victory.

The triumph was short-lived. Ryk Kydd discovered that Vanderspool intended to rob a train of ardeon crystals, conspiring with Kel-Morian renegades and the Bennet Family of the Old Families to do so. Vanderspool planned to have the survivors of First Platoon resocialized and had kill switches installed in the squad's armor. Hiram Feek uncovered the scheme and warned the squad, and the Devils resolved to take matters into their own hands.

Mutiny and dissolution#

The squad allied with Second Squad and followed Vanderspool to the extraction site, where they were attacked by Kel-Morians who had backed out of the deal. Tychus Findlay confronted Vanderspool with the knowledge that the colonel had tried to kill them, and the squad fought both his resocialized forces and the Kel-Morians for their revenge. They took heavy casualties, killing the Kel-Morians and supposedly Vanderspool, but of the force sent into the fight only Jim Raynor, Tychus Findlay, and Ryk Kydd survived. They took the crystals Vanderspool had meant to steal and went AWOL. Kydd went his separate way, while Raynor and Findlay became notorious outlaws, keeping the name Heaven's Devils for their duo so the memory of the squad would live on.

Vanderspool, however, had survived, though crippled. Years later he used the last of his wealth to hire the bounty hunter Ezekiel Daun to kill the surviving members of First Squad and anyone associated with them. Daun succeeded against all but Raynor and Findlay. After a failed attempt on their lives during a bank heist, Daun was incapacitated and taken into custody, though Findlay was arrested in the process. Raynor later hunted down and killed Vanderspool himself.

Legacy#

The squad's reputation as heroes endured long after the end of the Guild Wars. Raynor and Findlay both kept fond memories of their time in the old unit, and the squad's name became shorthand between them for reckless, all-or-nothing action. The famous Polk's Pride photograph remained one of the enduring images of the conflict.